John
Dee was born in London on July 13, 1527. His father was a vintner and a
man of high repute in the court of Henry VIII, with some affluence,
allowing
him to give his son a decent education. John Dee went to St. John¹s
College in Cambridge at the age of 15 in 1542, where he studied math and
astronomy, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree two years later. After
receiving his first degree, he traveled to Holland meeting with many
scholars.
When he returned to England, he brought with him the first astronomer¹s
staff of brass along with two brass gloves constructed by Gerard
Mercator,
a famous cartographer of that time. After his return he received a
Master
of the Arts degree but was soon forced to leave England after being
accused
of being a conjurer thanks to a machine he built. During his first
sojourn
away from England, he first went to Louvain, France then spent some time
in Paris, giving lectures on Euclid¹s Elements and the basics of
Geometry
at the Sorbonne. Dee was offered a permanent post there, but he declined
the post to return to England where he had been recommended for the post
of Rector of Severn-upon-Severn by Edward VI, the son of Henry VII.

While performing the duties of Rector, with the assurance of a home and
steady income, Dee exclusively devoted himself to astrological studies.
However, upon the accession of Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary in
1553 he was accused of ³using enchantments against the queen¹s
life² and imprisoned at Hampton Court. Such accusations of witchcraft
and sorcery plagued Dee all his life, despite his many scientific
achievements.
Dee said in his translation of Euclid¹s Elements in English that he
was regarded as ³a companion of the helhounds (sic), a caller and a
conjurer of wicked and damned spirits². In 1555 Dee was freed by an
act of the Privy Council and he took his liberty. Dee¹s fortunes began
to rise upon the accession of Elizabeth I, due to the fact that Lord
Morely,
one of the queen¹s favorites, asked Dee to pick a ³propitious
day² for her coronation. Elizabeth met Dee and was so impressed with
him that she had him give her lessons in astrology. Soon after, Dee
again
went to the Continent for several years, traveling throughout Europe. In
1571, Dee purchased a mansion at Mortlake on the Thames river where he
began
a collection of curious books and manuscripts and objects, most of which
were later destroyed by mobs that thought Dee was familiar with the
Devil
and was confiscated by the Queen after 1583. The collection included
4000
rare books and 700 choice manuscripts, many of which are to be found in
the British Museum. He also became well known as an astronomer, as well
as an astrologer with many people coming to consult his advice. Dee
practiced
astrology for his living, but he studied the Talmud, Rosicrucian
theories
and practiced alchemy in hopes of finding the elixir of life and the Philosopher's Stone¹.

In 1581 Dee began to experiment with crystalomancy or crystal gazing, a mode of divination using a
globe,
a clear pool of water (the method that Nostradamus used to collect his
quatrains)
or any transparent object. According to his diary on May 25, 1581 Dee
first
saw spirits while crystal gazing, and during the following year, he saw
a vision of the angel Uriel, who gave him a convex piece of crystal that
would allow communication with the spirit world. After using the crystal
many times, Dee discovered that he was only able to use the crystal by
concentrating
his entire mental faculties on the crystal. Concentration of this kind
can
lead to powerful delusions, that can lead to insanity and it is
generally
thought that Dee didn¹t see anything, only deluding himself. Dee found
he was able to use it for such communications, but he could not write
down
what he would see during his visions. It became necessary for Dee to
have
an assistant write down what he saw and heard, and Dee found him in
Edward
Kelly.

Edward Kelly was born in 1555 in the county of Lancashire. Nothing is
known
about his early life, but after being convicted of counterfeiting, he
was
sentenced to the pillory at Lancaster where he lost his ears. Then he
moved
to Worcester, becoming an apothecary and an alchemist, gaining a reputation for being a sensualist. While
Dee sought knowledge for knowledge¹s sake, Kelly only was interested
how it could make him rich. Kelly was famous for claiming to have
discovered
the Philosopher¹s stone, and a deep knowledge of necromancy. He was also well known as a con man, having duped
many people. Upon meeting Dee, Kelly looked into the convex crystal and
nearly every time he did so, he seemed to have wondrous visions.
Although
Dee was very intelligent and learned, he was also too trusting. Kelly
not
only saw visions of angels, but also of devils whose task was to destroy
the two men. Dee was so convinced of the truth of these visions that he
transcribed them verbatim and they can be found in the book: ³A
True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. Dee and some
Spirits².
Now, Dee claimed to have finally found the elixir vitæ in the ruins
of Glastonberry Abbey, and with the elixir and the spirits, Dee¹s fame
spread throughout Europe attracting many curious visitors, including
Albert
Laski, a Polish nobleman. Laski invited the two men, along with their
wives
and children to return with him to Poland, so they all went.

For several years after 1583 Dr. John Dee and
Edward Kelly lived in Trebona in Poland, the home town of Albert Laski,
who sponsored their alchemical researches. In about a year, Laski¹s
fortune was spent, and the men began to travel about Poland and Bohemia,
from city to city finding new people to dupe. These travels went on
until
1587, when in Prague Dr. Dee¹s health began to fail and when Kelly
and Dee had a falling out because of Kelly's new explorations of a book
called The Necronomicon, that frightened both Dee and his
family.
Dee is said to have found a copy of the Necronomicon, given to
him
by the alchemist Jacob Eliezer known as the "Black Rabbi" (this
book does exist and was the basis of Kelly and Dee¹s Endochian magic,
Crowley¹s The Book of the Law and H.P Lovecraft¹s Cthulthu Mythos).
Shortly after that Dee returned to England along with his family. As for
the final fate of Kelly, he continued to attempt to dupe people in
Germany,
claiming that he had the philosopher¹s stone and the elixir vitæ
as before, but not finding as much interest as before. Eventually he was
arrested as a heretic and a sorcerer in Prague, and again in southern
Germany.
But, after the second imprisonment he attempted to escape from his
prison,
only managing to fall and brake two of his ribs and both legs. He died
in
1593 due to his injuries.

Dee returned to England, welcomed by Elizabeth and the court then went
back
to his home in Mortlake, continuing his search for the philosopher¹s
stone, that always had eluded him. His experiments yielded nothing
except
to impoverish Dee. Seeing his plight, Elizabeth gave him first the
position
of chancellor of St. Paul¹s Cathedral in London and then the wardenship
of Manchester College that he held until 1603 when he finally retired to
his home for good. While he was warden of Manchester College Dee
translated
his copy of the Necronomicon into English and was never printed. After
Dee¹s
death the book went into the collection of Elias Ashmole then into the
Bodleian
Library in Oxford until it was stolen in 1934 Back at Mortlake for good,
Dee was a fortune-teller which gave him the reputation of being a
wizard.
Dee petitioned James I in 1604 for protection against such accusation.
Replying
to them by saying ³that none of all the great number of the very strange
and frivolous fables or histories reported and told of him were true².
Dee died at the age of 81 in 1608, in extreme poverty.

Dr. John Dee, despite his apparent delusions, was one of the keenest
minds
of his time. He his credited for making the calculations that would
enable
England to use the Gregorian calendar, he championed the preservation
and
the collection of historic documents and he was very well known for
being
a great astronomer and mathematician. It could be said that Dr. Dee was
the one of the first modern scientists, although he was one of the last
serious alchemists, necromancers and crystal gazers.